News in Saturday's paper that the St. Maarten delegation in Brazil had succeeded in securing a year-round weekly flight from São Paulo with GOL Airlines is most welcome. Brazil with its strong economy has great potential when it comes to tourism and several destinations in the region, including Aruba and Curaçao, already have been aggressively targeting this huge market for some time.
Although the flight expected to start at the end of March will be via Bogotá, Colombia, it is still a non-seasonal connection that was lacking up to now. At the same time, it offers new possibilities to tackle the also interesting Colombian market as well.
To be sure, the regular service will be an addition to the current weekly charter of tour operator CVC using a GOL aircraft, so there will be two weekly flights during the next high season. Moreover, the delegation led by Tourism Commissioner Frans Richardson had reported earlier a deal with four major Brazilian wholesalers and American Airlines to jointly promote a Brazil-Miami-St. Maarten connection.
It's important to remember, of course, that content still needs to be given to these agreements, with GOL Airlines seeking support in marketing the flight and the local private sector expected to do its part. After, all it's not the first time the possibility of such a connection has been discussed and even announced.
With the current charter, the start of regular service and joint promotion of the American Airlines connection via Miami, it appears ingredients needed to effectively tackle Latin America in general and Brazil in particular finally are starting to fall in place. That is also important in terms of diversifying St. Maarten's tourism source market, which now depends dangerously on North America.
In addition, while US and Canadian visitors come mostly when it is winter there, year-round airlift from Brazil and other less-seasonal markets offers the possibility of more visitors also during the slow "summer" period when any added business obviously can be considered a blessing and can help the local economy through the traditionally quiet months. Not only that, but Brazilians are known as fun-loving people who tend to venture out and spend perhaps more than the average tourist, with the many attractive tours, interesting activities and exciting nightlife available on "The Friendly Island" no doubt an attractive selling point.
All in all, the "samba" music of Brazil hopefully will be heard more often locally during the coming months and years, as indication that the current efforts have paid off. If that indeed turns out to be the case, the delegation will have scored an important "GOL."